And in the end, the entire "indiewood" film industry basically ignored us. Sundance, the speciality distributors, the major indie film press outlets and of course just about anyone with money couldn't be bothered.

And that was all before we decided to self-distribute the movie and things really got rough.

January 12, 2011

Kickstarter and IndieGoGo and buckets of cash

A recent post on the SF indieclub mailing list asked these questions and I figured other DIY filmmakers may be asking them too.

For both sites, you will be bringing 95% (or more) of the donors -- they don't have hordes of potential donors waiting with buckets of cash, sadly.

Basically, think of the sites as platforms to manage your own audience of potential donors: your family, friends, colleagues, etc.

If you are loner with no friends or family, the sites won't help you find new potential donors who you don't know. The people who donate to projects like ours are all people we know already. That's the bad news. The good news is that many of the people in your existing social circle and family want to support your project (really, they're supporting YOU, since they love -- or at least like -- you).

Both sites have their pluses and minuses, but at their core, they're pretty much the same (though IndieGoGo is a bit more film-centric since they started as a film site, while Kickstarter has a more general focus).

What did we do? Without using either Kickstarter or IndieGoGo, we've already raised over $7,000 toward our indie sci-fi feature, In-World War, mostly in $100 chunks. Not a ton, but enough to definitely make a huge difference for a DIY film like ours.

I'd say only 1 or 2 of the donors are not people I or my cast/crew know directly (and it's possible I may be wrong and those couple of people know someone working on the project -- we have hundreds in our extended cast and crew already). Again, the donations come from people you already know. That was the also case for both the investors and donors on our last film, Quality of Life.

I've read stories of people who crowdsourced their film financing through viral campaigns and hordes of generous strangers, but as with anything "viral" it makes a great case study, but is near-impossible to replicate.

Also important: we have non-profit sponsorship with the SF Film Society, which can now be integrated into IndieGoGo (it wasn't when we started the fundraising drive).

How did we do it?

Letters, articles and donation forms (with self-addressed stamped envelopes) sent through snail mail to a few hundred of our closest friends and relatives. That's right: paper not email.

Email blasts to our email list of hundreds of friends/family plus the thousands on our Quality of Life list.

Email and paper donation requests were sent around specific times: start of production, finish of production, holidays, my birthday.

Feel free to test it out by donating $25 or $50 or $500. We're still in post, so need all the support we can get. ;-)

To summarize: these sites are just tools. Whatever you use, your fundraising success depends on your willingness to hit up your friends and family. Sadly, no one else really cares about your project (especially in the early stages before you've shot anything).

You're wrong, most people use Twitter and their followers support them. Nobody in your family is gunna donate $100, and even if a few did, its not gunna add up to enough. If you're younger like me, people at your school won't have money to donate. We have many great Twitter fans, over 1,000 followers, and many people who will spread the word for us. There was one campaign on Indiegogo that said around 60% of funds was from people they didn't know from social networks..... Time to get up to date, nobody sends mail anymore, its called Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and the media. Oh and also having a good story.... which, you probably didn't have....

Jerry, this post is almost two and a half years old. Times have definitely changed. You're right that crowdfunding sites can bring you donors that are new -- that's a change from the early days. But these still aren't likely to form the majority of your fundraising. These still come from your own personal connections. 1000 followers on Twitter is great, but only a very small fraction will donate unless they are absolutely rabid for your work.

As for family donations, it depends on the family (and friends) you have. If your family is struggling (like when my dad was laid off), then you're right that not much can be expected if at all. And if all your friends are young, out-of-work kids, then don't expect much from them.

But you might have more potential donors than you know...possibly former teachers, bosses, co-workers (again, depends on the job), grandparents, aunts/uncles, etc. Can't hurt to ask.

I've been surprised time and time again -- people with modest means have stepped up and given their cash to support our projects.

Personal connections (real live snail mail, phone calls etc.) can be more effective than Twitter and Facebook -- both all are needed.